“Before brewing beer, Charles Doering, co-founder of the Vancouver Breweries which is now houses Main Street Brewing, owned the Stag & Pheasant saloon to follow his passion of opening a brewery. It is with this same passion to brew beer that we tip our collective hats to Charles with our ‘Stag & Pheasant’ Imperial Stout. This stout is a combination of rich roasted malts which give a deep, earthy taste, while interlacing chocolate, coffee and a touch of pine with a hint of smoke. The bitterness balances out the sweetness to finish of this delicious winter warmer.”

Summary: A bit too bright and hoppy at the start and mids which are competing with the roasted malt sweetness at the beginning to mids. Eventually the roastyness and hopped bitter zen out at the finish. Not the smoothest imp stout but at least decent; I’d like to try the BA limited edition.

“We have captured the mouth-watering flavours of natural ginger by blending real stem ginger with our craft-brew lager. The resulting beer is deep, spicy and really packs a punch! Purity of flavour is so important to us we never use juice from concentrate.”

Style: Ginger Beer

Taste: Cane sugar cloying palate rough plain ginger light-medium burn

Where I got it : 16th St. Liquor / W.Vancouver

How much: $11 CAD (after 10% off) – 275 ml. x 4, September 2013

Do I love this enough to drink it again: no

Would I recommend this to beer aficionados: nope

Visual: (cellared for 4 years). Pours copper orange with a bit of fizz and no head, very thin ring, scatter very loose slow streams.

“We have captured the mouth-watering flavours of Scottish Glen Ample Raspberries by blending real fruit juice with our craft-brew lager. The resulting beer is full flavoured and deliciously refreshing. Purity of flavour is so important to us we never use juice from concentrate.”

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Style: (Raspberry) Fruit Beer

Taste: Jammy mild tangy sweet raspberry subtle malt roughish finish

Where I got it : Brewery Creek / Vancouver

How much: $11 CAD (after 10% off) – 275 ml. x 4, September 2013

Do I love this enough to drink it again: no

Would I recommend this to beer aficionados: nope

Visual: (cellared for 4 years). Pours dirty reddish-brown with no head, surfacing soda-like streams with a small island, bubbles clinging to the side of the glass.

Summary: A pretty simple beer that hardly tastes like a beer except at the finish where the hops appear. Partially authentic but mostly jammy raspberry with just a touch of tang. Drinkable, a bit better than their strawberry [C], though I don’t really like the palate rough finish.

Summary: A very easy-to-drink 7%er stout with a solid balance of sweet and roasted malt. Slightly heavy malty sweet by the end but there’s enough complexity to balance it out. It lacks a bit of creaminess and push at the finish.

10 toasted French oak staves are added to the barrel and aged for 2-3 months to impart a spicier, more intense caramel and vanilla flavour profile while maintaining their signature “tip the of tongue” finish.

Criteria:

Nose: Jefferson’s Reserve (JR) has a subdued nasal tingliness with gentle toffee-caramel and rubbing alcohol. Only mildly offensive. Maker’s 46 (M46) is about 2 levels more aggressive in both nasal attack and aromatics. JR is definitely more approachable whilst you could argue that M46 has more character. Verdict = JR edges it out, the caramelness is more appealing.

Taste & Texture: One sip of JR, and then a sip of M46 – wow the difference is like night and day. JR comes off as a thin-but-smooth with toasted light caramel-oak, sweet honey, cinnamon, mild vanilla, lacking length and punch. M46 is thicker on the palate, has a bigger caramel profile whilst being more numbing and carrying more heat. JR clearly has more sippable subtle complexity while M46 comes across as bold and harsh, more suitable in a cocktail. Verdict = JR comes across as more refined and palatable